


Unfinished Business

by DixonsAngel75



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-13 21:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14121186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DixonsAngel75/pseuds/DixonsAngel75
Summary: Daryl takes Carol back to Georgia in hopes of some closure





	Unfinished Business

They didn’t speak as the SUV sped through the Georgia countryside, far away from the burnt remains of Alexandria. Far away from the Kingdom, far away from the Hilltop, and far away from the clutches of Negan and the Saviors. She didn’t know where they were going because Daryl wouldn’t tell her. All he’d offered up was that they’d needed to “take care a’ some unfinished business.”

Carol couldn’t help the way that her heart clenched tightly in her chest. The thought of being back here scared her. That fear was part of the reason they’d mostly rode along from Virginia in silence, only really talking when they had needed to figure a way around a jam on the highway, or to discuss where they should stop for the night. The other reason being because of her own troubled mind, thoughts about things she’d done that haunted her still. Some things of which he knew of, some he didn’t know about specifically. And he didn’t press her about them. Daryl, for the most part, seemed to be content with leaving her alone to her thoughts… He seemed to know and understand that she needed the quiet to just think. How it would probably do her some good to just be for a while. After all, that’s why she’d left Alexandria in the first place, right? But it hadn’t failed, no matter how far she had ran, he had still managed to find her, not comfortable with letting her pull away completely, not being able to cope with now knowing where she was. He hadn’t come to her little house outside of the Kingdom to try and drag her back. No, she knew that he had only come to her for his own peace of mind; to see for himself that she was all right, and to ask her why… Why had she left them… Why had she left him.

Daryl Dixon, her tattered guardian angel. As tattered as the worn wings on his leather vest.

Truth was that she’d left them all because she loved them so much… Loved him so much, and it made her question her own character. In this world the way it was now, if you loved, you had to kill to protect them. Carol had already killed so many that she was afraid of how easily it had become to kill, afraid of losing herself completely to the darkness that threatened to consume her. She regretted being put in the position of feeling the need to kill Karen and David, to protect the rest of her family and friends from the illness at the prison. Rick had banished her for that decision, but she would’ve done it again without thinking twice. And that terrified her.

Carol chanced a glance over at her traveling companion, seemingly at the same time that he chanced a glance at her. Her mouth twitched up into a side smile.

“What?” he asked, his voice cracking from long miles and hours without speaking.

“Where are we going, Daryl?” she asked, looking out her window.

“We got-”

“Unfinished business,” she sighed, “I know. But why are we back in Georgia? I didn’t realize we were taking a road trip.”

“Told ya to pack to be gone a while” he stated, simply.

She humphed and nodded. That, he had. “Okay, but what about the war with the Saviors? Shouldn’t we be preparing?”

Daryl gave another glance in her direction. “Nah” he told her. “We’re only two people. I’m gettin’ ya away for a while, we got shit here that ain’t settled yet.”

Carol didn’t reply, and after a few minutes more of silence she heard him sigh deeply.

“We’re goin’ to the farm.”

Her head whipped around to glare at him, and she saw his deep blue eyes dart to glance at her out of their corners. “Why?!”

“Got shit that needs settled.”

Carol’s hands grew clammy at the thought of returning to the farm they’d called home back while they searched for Sophia. More like when Daryl had searched for her. The farm where they’d met Hershel, Maggie, and Beth, Patricia, and Jimmy. She didn’t know if she could handle being there again, to the place where her daughter had stumbled out of the old barn, a lethal bite on her shoulder, having become one of the walking dead.

Daryl somehow seemed to know what she was thinking and reached over, lacing his fingers with hers. She let him, grateful for the comfort and warmth his hand provided. “It’s a’ right” he murmured to her. “This is somethin’ we both need.”

They didn’t speak again until they pulled up to the old farmhouse, which now looked as worn as Carol felt. He opened her door and together they stood looking at their old home, memories- good and bad- rushed over them both. Back in the distance, behind the house, was what remained of the burned skeleton of the barn that was set ablaze the night the herd of the dead overtook the farm. Now the fields were what threatened to overrun the place. Carol knew that if she listened hard enough she’d be able to hear the old group’s voices in the distance and see Andrea and Dale sitting atop the RV, rifles in hand, keeping watch like always. Lori and Rick would be talking over by the tent they shared with Carl, Shane off in the distance trying not to notice how the two would occasionally give each other a loving caress. Daryl’s tent had been set further up the hill, trying to unsuccessfully distance himself from the group, while Maggie and Glenn would most likely be hidden away from the eyes of her daddy.

She shuddered as the ghosts of their departed family swept around her on the breeze. She reached for Daryl, twisting her fingers in the leather of his jacket, needing to feel the comfort of solid form next to her. He gently slipped his arms around her, pulling her close as she hid her face against his neck to shield against the onslaught of tears threatening to fall. They were gone now… Daryl, Rick, Maggie, and herself being all that remained of that group, and this place only reminded her of the fact. Sophia, Shane, Dale, Patricia, and Jimmy had been lost at the farm. Andrea, Lori, Hershel, Beth, and Glenn since then... and just days ago, even Carl. In that moment Carol felt the absence of each one, and the pain threatened to overwhelm her.

“I miss ‘em, too” he murmured near her ear.

“Why did we come here?” she sobbed softly, leaning into him and turning her head to look out over the dilapidated old farm once again.

Daryl tenderly brushed his lips against the silver curls of her hair. “C’mon.”

She let him lead her toward the back of the farm to a line of trees she knew was there, and she dreaded them.

“’Member when you wouldn’ come out when we buried ‘em?”

Carol looked up at him, her eyes silently pleading to not make her do this. “I saw Dale buried.”

“We’re not here for Dale” he replied, gently. He tenderly took hold of her chin and lifted it so her eyes would meet his. “I know you’ve been goin’ through some things, an’ I understand if ya still don’ wanna talk about ‘em. Hell, I been goin’ through shit, too.” He clasped her hand as they continued to walk to the tree line. “But, I figured if we was gonna start healin,’ then we might as well start here.”

Carol’s look turned to confusion. “How?”

By then they had come up on the small graveyard where they’d buried the remains of Hershel’s family, Dale, and Sophia. He reached into his back jeans pocket and pulled out a sheet of crumpled paper, flashing it quickly so she could see it in his hand. “Father Gabriel wrote me a couple a’ words that I could read while we was here… Ya know, for Sophia. If that’s a’right?”

Closure. That’s what this had been all about. Daryl was offering her a chance to come to terms with Sophia’s death properly, like she should’ve done in the first place. A chance for them both to make peace with her death, to rid themselves of the guilt they both felt. Carol’s guilt of being weak and not being capable of protecting her daughter, and Daryl’s guilt at not being able to find her.

  
Carol had hid herself away in the RV after the catastrophe at Hershel’s barn, Daryl had immediately followed her. He sat there in silence as she grieved, but she knew he was there for comfort. She didn’t need to be alone right now.

Some time had passed by when Lori appeared in the doorway.

“They’re ready” she said told them, softly, before looking to Carol. “Come on.”

“Why?” she asked, simply, almost in exasperation.

“’Cause that’s your l’il girl” Daryl replied, surprised by her response.

“That’s not my little girl” she said, sniffling. “That’s some… Thing. My Sophia was alone in the woods. All this time, I thought…” she stopped, fighting to hold back her tears. “She didn’t cry herself to sleep. She didn’t go hungry. She didn’t try to find her way back.” Carol then looked out the window, and when she spoke, she sounded utterly defeated. “Sophia died a long time ago.”

Lori turned then, not knowing how to respond, and walked away. Daryl watched Carol for a moment, almost like he was giving her time to reconsider her decision. When she didn’t move or speak, he stood up and growled disgustedly as he picked up his crossbow, then walked out.

  
Tears now fell from her eyes, and she mustered up the best smile that she could, nodding her head to Daryl. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

The side of his mouth quirked up into a slight pleased grin, and he wordlessly slipped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against the warmth of his body. He cleared his throat, and began to read the short scriptures.

“In a moment, in the twinklin’ of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, an’ the dead shall be raised incorruptible, an’ we shall be changed. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy vict’ry? But Jesus said, Suffer l’il children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

She let him pull away as he tucked the paper back into his pocket, then stepped up to the stones that had been laid around the young girl’s grave. He reached into a front pocket of his jacket and carefully pulled out the blooms of two Cherokee roses, and knelt down in front of the grave. Daryl looked back up at Carol and held his hand out to her, motioning for her to join him.

Tears streaming down her cheeks, she knelt down beside him. He handed her one of the rose blooms.

For a long while they stayed like that, there on the ground, until he finally spoke.

“M’ sorry, Sophia” his voice broke with emotion. “I tried my best to find ya, bring ya back to your momma. I’da gave anythin’ to bring ya home… I think I’da really liked to a’ got to know ya better.” He inhaled a shaky breath. “An’ your momma, I’m tryin’ to take care a’ her, best I can. Sometimes she don’ make it none to easy for me, but I’ll protect her with my life.” He then laid the rose bloom onto the grave.

A smile broke on Carol’s tear-streaked face and she looked at him as she wiped her cheeks. Daryl gave her a half smile, then nodded that she should say something.

She wondered to herself where she should start… there was so much she wanted to say. She’d thought about talking with her daughter, even had kept a journal she’d wrote to her while the group lived on the run, and at the prison. Sometimes they were “Dear Sophia” letters, other times they were just thoughts that would come to her in the middle of the night, or during the day while she was working. Sophia would visit her in dreams, and they would sit and talk as if nothing had happened, as if she was still with her. She had never dreamed that she would be back here at the farm, getting a second chance to tell her goodbye… And now that she was here, she didn’t know what to say.

“Hey, Baby,” she started, her own voice breaking as Daryl’s had done, “it’s me. It’s Momma.” She looked up to Daryl and he nodded to her, encouraging her to continue. “Don’t let Daryl fool you. He’s doing a wonderful job taking care of me. I wouldn’t be here right now if he’d have left us after...” She stopped and her breath hitched in her chest as she fought back more tears. “I miss you so much, Sweetheart, and oh how I wish you were still with us. We’ve lost so many since we lost you, but I’m sure you must know that by now. They’re probably there... I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you back then…”

Carol didn’t speak for a while afterwards, but when she did, her voice sounded strong once again. “Just remember I’ll always love you, Sophia. And try not to worry about me, I’m gonna be okay now.” She reached over, taking Daryl’s hand in hers, then gave him a watery smile. “I know I will, as long as Daryl’s here with me.” She then laid her bloom on the grave alongside his.

He helped her to stand then, and she kept hold of his hand. “Thank you for this” she whispered, wiping the wetness from her cheeks. “For giving me this chance to say goodbye, Daryl.”

“M’sorry it wasn’ much, but...”

“It was perfect.”

He nodded once, and for a moment fixed his eyes on the treeline further back behind the remains of the barn, where it seemed like, ages ago, he’d emerged from. Bloody from a bolt wound in his side, bruised, half delirious, but holding hope that he’d found in the form of the ragged, dirty doll that was Sophia’s. Andrea had grazed him in the head with a bullet then, mistaking him for a Walker, but it had been all worth it to see the light in Carol’s eyes when she saw the doll.

Daryl tipped his head slightly to look at her through the dark shag of his hair. “So, is that what ya want?” he asked tentatively, his voice low and soft. “Ya want me with ya?”

Carol smiled and reached her free hand up to cup his cheek, her heart racing when he leaned in to her touch. She knew what he was asking, he didn’t need to clarify. She’d loved him back then, and even moreso now. “Yes.”

Their eyes locked momentarily before she closed the gap between them and brushed her lips against his.

“Is that all right?” she asked, softly.

“Yeah” he whispered, nodding, before he folded her back into him for a longer, slower kiss.

Carol knew that she would always do whatever was necessary to protect him and their loved ones, though now she felt she had the strength enough to carry the weight of it. But she didn’t have to carry it all herself… Daryl would always be there to carry it with her. And now, in his arms, she knew that he always had been.

 


End file.
